Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Dave Roos in Seeker has the report about the proposed new Asian energy supergrid. As we know from other studies, a large-scale energy grid is a key part of the transition to renewable energy since it allows areas that are still in daylight to send solar-generated electricity to areas that have moved into darkness.

GEIDCO hopes the Asia Super Grid will become the first piece in a global energy puzzle. The State Grid Corporation of China, one of the chief backers of GEIDCO, predicts that every country will have its own super grid by 2030, and that the global energy "internet" will be completed by 2050 and powered by 80 percent clean energy.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Randy J. Hill and Elliott J. Williams at Renewable Energy World have the update on California's energy storage mandate. In particular, they look at the effects of AB 2514, which is pushing California utilities to look at technologies beyond pumped storage hydroelectricity.

Although a handful of storage technologies are getting a big boost from
that effort, there is little doubt that roughly 75 percent of the
state’s energy storage needs in the coming decades will be met by pumped
storage hydro, the traditional—and still the most economical—storage
solution.

The second U.S. Energy Storage Summit is happening in San Francisco, December 7th & 8th.

Now in its second year, the U.S. Energy Storage Summit will bring together utilities, financiers, regulators, technology innovators, and storage practitioners for two full days of data-intensive presentations, analyst-led panel sessions with industry leaders, and extensive, high-level networking.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Coal isn't coming back, no matter what Trump says, according to Lucas Mearian at Computer World. His report has some nice detail about specifically where and how Trump could hurt the transition to renewable energy and how the growing economic strength of renewable energy, particularly solar, might enable it to shrug him off and keep moving forward.

Even with the dissolution of the [Clean Power Plan], the number of coal-fired generators is still expected to be reduced by about one-third through 2030, or by about 60 gigawatts of capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Perhaps as a reaction to the election of Donald Trump, Germany has presented a new and more detailed plan for how it will achieve a renewable energy economy by 2050. Think about that for a minute; It's only 34 years away. My nieces and nephews will live to see it. Bob Berwyn at InsideClimate News has the story.

The Klimaschutz 2050 plan envisions a carbon-neutral Germany by 2050, a longstanding target. But for the first time, it gets specific. The plan details how much each sector of the economy will reduce emissions to meet the intermediate goal of a 55 percent carbon reduction in the next 15 years. In previous climate plans, there were no goals for transportation and agriculture, but now all major polluters will have to pull their weight, German officials said.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Oregon's Portland Tribune has a report from Steve Law on the new plan for renewable energy submitted by Portland Gas and Electric (PGE). Oregon law requires that PGE get 50 percent of its electricity comes from wind, solar and other renewable energy by 2040. The new plan shows how they intend to get there.

The plan seems to lean heavily on energy efficiency, which is a good reminder that conservation technologies stand shoulder to shoulder with solar and wind technology in the building of a renewable energy world.

PGE’s 2016 Integrated Resource Plan calls for a mix of new energy-efficiency measures,
providing ways to reduce demand for power, and acquiring new energy
supplies, such as natural gas and renewable energy, among other
strategies.

The country, notorious for its dangerous levels of pollution, invested more than the US ($44.1bn), the UK ($22.2bn) and Japan ($36.2bn), put together, the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual report on global trends in renewable energy found.

Photo Credit

The header picture is "Solarpark Altötting/Oberkastl" by Windwärts Energie. The photo is available under a Creative Commons license. The original photo has been modified by the placement of the blog title.